The Role of Individual Risk Attitudes on the Selection of Creative Concepts in Engineering Design

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Ambiguity Aversion ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
The Impact

While creativity is often seen as an indispensable quality of engineering design, individuals often select conventional or previously successful options during the concept selection process due to the inherent risk associated with creative concepts. Surprisingly, prior research has shown that this preference for conventional design alternatives is often done in an unconscious manner and is attributed to people’s inadvertent bias against creativity. While we know that designers may prematurely filter out creative ideas, little is actually known about what factors attribute to the promotion or filtering of these creative concepts during concept selection. The current paper describes an empirical study conducted with 19 first-year engineering students aimed at investigating the impact of individual risk aversion and ambiguity aversion on the selection and filtering of creative ideas during the concept selection process. The results from this study indicate that individual risk attitudes are related to both creative ability and creative concept selection. However, an individual’s ability to generate creative ideas was found to be unrelated to their preference for creative ideas during concept selection. These results add to our understanding of creativity during concept selection and provide guidelines for enhancing the design process to encourage design creativity.

Implementing Creativity Evaluation Tools Into the Concept Selection Process in Engineering Education

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Christopher A. Gosnell ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Selection Method ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Design Students ◽  
Study Teams ◽  
Expert Ratings

In design research, creativity assessment methods have been studied to obtain quantitative measurements of design novelty and feasibility for use in the concept selection process. However, little research exists that studies the application and implementation of these tools by engineering students on grade-dependent class projects. In this study, teams of undergraduate engineering design students evaluated their own early product sketches using informal team discussions, a creativity scale and our Tool for Assessing Semantic Creativity (TASC) adjective selection method. The resulting evaluations were compared and contrasted with evaluations obtained from the widely adopted Shah Vargas-Hernandez and Smith (SVS) method and expert ratings. These findings demonstrate that our TASC adjective selection method of evaluating design creativity is tapping into similar constructs of creativity as informal team discussions and expert evaluations. They also indicate that the SVS method does not appear to be evaluating creativity as perceived by engineering design students or experts. The results of this study can be used to understand how students make decisions during the concept selection process and how tools can be developed or implemented in the classroom setting to aid in this process.

My Idea Is Best! Ownership Bias and its Influence on Engineering Concept Selection

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Arti H. Patel ◽  
Andrew A. Strohmetz ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Final Design ◽  
Process Factors ◽  
The Impact

Concept selection is considered one of the most crucial components of the engineering design process because the direction of the final design is largely determined at this stage. One of the most widely utilized techniques for filtering designs during this process involves informal review meetings where team members identify the designs that most closely satisfy the design goals. While this is often seen as an efficient process, factors such as ownership bias, or an unintentional preference for an individuals’ own ideas, and team member personality attributes may impact an individual’s decision-making process. However, few studies have explored the impact of these factors on concept selection. Therefore, an empirical study was conducted with 37 engineering students in order to investigate the effect of these attributes on the selection or filtering of design concepts in engineering education. The results from this study show that personality impacts the proportion of ideas selected, and that male students tend to select more of their own ideas (ownership bias) than their female counterparts who more often select their team member’s concepts. These results add to our understanding of the factors that impact the team concept selection process and provide empirical evidence of the occurrence of ownership bias in engineering design education.

The Effects of Gender and Idea Goodness on Ownership Bias in Engineering Design Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Andrew A. Strohmetz ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Final Design ◽  
The Impact

Concept selection is a critical stage of the engineering design process because of its potential to influence the direction of the final design. While formalized selection methods have been developed to increase its effectiveness and reduce human decision-making biases, research that understands these biases in more detail can provide a foundation for improving the selection process. One important bias that occurs during this process is ownership bias or an unintentional preference for an individual's own ideas over the ideas of others. However, few studies have explored ownership bias in a design setting and the influence of other factors such as the gender of the designer or the “goodness” of an idea. In order to understand the impact of these factors in engineering design education, a study was conducted with 110 engineering students. The results from this study show that male students tend to show ownership bias during concept selection by selecting more of their own ideas while female students tend to show the opposite bias, the Halo Effect, by selecting more of their team members' concepts. In addition, participants exhibited ownership bias for ideas that were considered good or high quality, but the opposite bias for ideas that were not considered good or high quality. These results add to our understanding of the factors that impact team concept selection and provide empirical evidence of the occurrence of ownership bias and the effects of gender and idea goodness in engineering design education.

Can Design Teams Be Empathically Creative? A Simulation-Based Investigation on the Role of Team Empathy on Concept Generation and Selection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Jessica Menold ◽  
Jacquelyn Huff ◽  
Christopher McComb
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Computational Simulation ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Research on empathy has been surging in popularity in the engineering design community since empathy is known to help designers develop a deeper understanding of the users’ needs. Because of this, the design community has been invested in devising and assessing empathic design activities. However, research on empathy has been primarily limited to individuals, meaning we do not know how it impacts team performance, particularly in the concept generation and selection stages of the design process. Specifically, it is unknown how the empathic composition of teams, average (elevation) and standard deviation (diversity) of team members’ empathy, would impact design outcomes in the concept generation and selection stages of the design process. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of team trait empathy on concept generation and selection in an engineering design student project. This was accomplished through a computational simulation of 13,482 teams of noninteracting brainstorming individuals generated by a statistical bootstrapping technique drawing upon a design repository of 806 ideas generated by first-year engineering students. The main findings from the study indicate that the elevation in team empathy positively impacted simulated teams’ unique idea generation and selection while the diversity in team empathy positively impacted teams’ generation of useful ideas. The results from this study can be used to guide team formation in engineering design.

The Impact of Example Modality and Physical Interactions on Design Creativity

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Physical Interactions ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
The Impact

Interacting with example products is an essential and widely practiced method in engineering design, yet little information exists on how the representation (pictorial or physical) or interaction a designer has with an example impacts design creativity. This is problematic because without this knowledge we do not understand how examples affect idea generation or how we can effectively modify or develop design methods to support example usage practices. In this paper, we report the results of a controlled study with first year engineering design students (N = 89) developed to investigate the impact of a designer's interaction with either a two-dimensional (2D) pictorial image or a three-dimensional (3D) product (through visual inspection or product dissection activities) and the resulting functional focus and creativity of the ideas developed. The results of this study reveal that participants who interacted with the physical example produced ideas that were less novel and less functionally focused than those who interacted with the 2D representation. Additionally, the results showed that participants who dissected the product produced a higher variety of ideas than those that visually inspected it. These results contribute to our understanding of the benefits and role of 2D and 3D designer-product interactions during idea development. We use these findings to develop recommendations for the use of designer-product interactions throughout the design process.

When Are Designers Willing to Take Risks? How Concept Creativity and Prototype Fidelity Influence Perceived Risk

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Jessica Menold ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Selection Of

Building prototypes is an important part of the concept selection phase of the design process, where fuzzy ideas get represented to support communication and decision making. However, previous studies have shown that prototypes generate different levels of user feedback based on their fidelity and aesthetics. Furthermore, prior research on concept selection has shown that individual risk attitude effects how individuals select ideas, as creative ideas are perceived to be riskier in comparison to less creative ideas. While the role of risk has been investigated in concept selection, there is lack of research on how risk is related to the selection of prototypes at various levels of fidelity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of prototype fidelity, concept creativity, and risk aversion, on perceived riskiness and concept selection through a between-subjects study with 72 engineering students. The results revealed that there was a “goldilocks” effect in which students choose concepts with “just the right amount” of novelty, not too much and not too little, as long as quality was adequate. In addition, the prototype fidelity of a concept had an interaction with uniqueness, indicating that unique concepts are more likely to be perceived as less risky if presented at higher levels of fidelity.

scholarly journals Monitoring Student Engagement in First Year Engineering

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine Van Gyn ◽  
Peter Wild
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Impact

In a 2006 study to assess student engagement in the first year, engineering students were the least likely to express positive views about that experience and reported low levels of academic engagement. Initiatives to address this situation in engineering were in progress, including the development of two first year courses integrated engineering design with required writing courses. To monitor engagement and satisfaction, and assess the impact of the course interventions, the same research methodology as the 2006 study was used in 2010, 2011, and 2012 following the implementation of these courses. Participants in focus groups discussed questions related to engagement and identified factors that had led to their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Themes identified for the three different time periods were compared to each other and to those that emerged in the original 2006 study. Significant among the themes was the experience in the design/communications courses. Themes of dissatisfaction and alienation were highly consistent with the 2006 study but became moderated. This process reinforced the need for authentic engineering course experiences in the first year and is consistent with previous research.

scholarly journals Visual Inspection or Product Dissection? The Impact of Designer-Product Interactions on Engineering Design Creativity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Visual Inspection ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Creative Thought ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Product Interaction ◽  
The Impact

Designers commonly interact with products in the early phases of design in order to understand the solution space and gain inspiration for new designs. Although designer-product interaction methods such as visual inspection and product dissection are recognized as a pivotal component of the engineering design process, little data is available on how these practices affect idea generation or when these activities are most useful for inspiring creative thought. Therefore, the current study was developed to understand the impact of these activities on creative idea generation. During our controlled study, fifty-nine undergraduate engineering students were instructed to either visually inspect or physically dissect an example milk frother and then generate ideas for a new, innovative design. These concepts were then evaluated for their novelty, variety, quality and quantity. Our analysis (ANOVA) revealed that participants who physically dissected the example frother produced ideas that were more novel but of lower quality than those that simply inspected the frother. Our results provide insights on the impact of designer-product interactions on creativity and we use these findings to develop recommendations for the use and alterations of these practices for improving creativity in engineering design.

When Are Designers Willing to Take Risks? How Concept Creativity and Prototype Fidelity Influence Perceived Risk

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Jessica Menold ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Selection Of

Building prototypes is an important part of the concept selection phase of the design process, where fuzzy ideas get represented to support communication and decision making. However, the previous studies have shown that prototypes generate different levels of user feedback based on their fidelity and esthetics. Furthermore, prior research on concept selection has shown that individual risk attitude effects how individuals select ideas, as creative ideas are perceived to be riskier in comparison to less creative ideas. While the role of risk has been investigated in concept selection, there is lack of research on how risk is related to the selection of prototypes at various levels of fidelity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of prototype fidelity, concept creativity, and risk aversion on perceived riskiness and concept selection through a between-subjects study with 72 engineering students. The results revealed that there was a “goldilocks” effect in which students choose concepts with “just the right amount” of novelty, not too much and not too little, as long as quality was adequate. In addition, the prototype fidelity of a concept had an interaction with uniqueness, indicating that unique concepts are more likely to be perceived as less risky if presented at higher levels of fidelity.

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